The May 23, 2018 Court of Appeals opinion in Urban v. Kerscher reverses a Family Court’s continuation of custody to third parties and returns the child to Mother. In 2014 Mother placed her daughter with Leo Kerscher and Mary Crew to pursue and secure a permanent home and employment in Pennsylvania. She originally intended this […]

After three published opinions in Conits v. Conits, one a refiled Supreme Court opinion, on May 2, 2018 the Court of Appeals issued an unpublished opinion on the remanded issue of the value of Husband’s Greek farm. Either Spiro Conits is a pants-on-fire liar who is finally getting his just desserts or a foolish litigant […]

The May 2, 2018 Court of Appeals opinion of Clark v. Clark is one of the rare published opinions approving true joint physical custody. Further the opinion approves a post-trial reformation of an equitable distribution agreement based upon what the court described as a “clerical error.” The Clark divorce litigation essentially commenced when the parties […]

The January 24, 2018 Court of Appeals opinion in Burgess v. Arnold is possibly correct but, in at least three important particulars, poorly reasoned. Burgess stems from Mother’s appeal of a family court order that gave the parties joint custody with her having primary custody over all issue except education. That order required that she […]

In the January 17, 2018, opinion in Scott v. Scott, the Court of Appeals refused to apply lump sum social security disability auxiliary benefits to a pre-disability child support arrearage. In Scott, Father had a child support arrearage when he became disabled. He petitioned for, and obtained, a temporary reduction in his child support obligation. […]

I rarely blog about unpublished opinions because even when they are interesting, and even when they should have been published, they rarely do anything other than restate legal principals that have been established in published opinions. However two recent unpublished family court opinions make new law–or would make law if they were published and therefore […]

Ever since DNA testing became sufficiently accurate to conclusively exclude paternity, there’s been a tension between the goals of establishing paternity with finality and with accuracy. Previous South Carolina case law has indicated a possibility of overturning prior but inaccurate determinations of paternity. The August 2, 2017 Court of Appeals opinion in Ashburn v. Rogers, […]

I would love to see the May 24, 2017 Court of Appeals opinion in Baker v. Hardwick get published. Not just because T. Ryan Phillips and I share office space; not just because I referred him the appeal that he turned into a victory reversal. Baker establishes an important legal principle: the outer limits of […]